A Syrian TV news crew has been kidnapped while covering clashes between the Syrian army and rebel forces in the suburbs of Damascus.

Reporter Yarah Saleh, cameraman Abboud Tabarah, his assistant Hatem Abu Yehiah and driver Housam Imad were accompanying an army unit. They work for the pro-government television station al-Ikhbariya.

Yesterday, a video surfaced online showing three of the team. A man who identified himself as a rebel spokesperson appeared to say that the cameraman had been killed in government shelling.

The Damascus-based al-Ikhbariya has been classified by the European Union as an instrument of propaganda on behalf of President Assad. It was the target of a rebel attack in late June in which at least three workers, and possibly as many as seven, were killed.